Bruins open Round 2 with double-overtime loss to the Canadiens

Friday

May 2, 2014 at 4:07 AMMay 2, 2014 at 6:29 AM

Missed opportunities were the big story for the Bruins on Thursday night, as they could put only 3-of-51 shots past Canadiens goalie Carey Price. P.K. Subban's second power-play goal of the night gave the Habs a 4-3 win and a 1-0 lead in the best-of-7 series, with Game 2 on Saturday afternoon at TD Garden.

Mike Loftus The Patriot Ledger

BOSTON - Look at it this way: The last time the Bruins opened a playoff series at TD Garden, and Game 1 ended on a shockingly sudden, 11th-hour type of goal against, they went on to win four straight games and advance to the next round.

Not buying it?

Well, you probably shouldn’t. It was one thing for the B’s to do that to the inexperienced and injury-weakened Red Wings in this year’s first round, but they’re facing a much better Montreal Canadiens team in Round 2. And a much better goalie in Carey Price.

That said, Thursday night’s 4-3, double-overtime loss to the visiting Canadiens in Game 1 of the best-of-7 probably won’t be a series-killer for the B’s and certainly shouldn’t be. There was plenty to like about the Bruins’ game, particularly when it came to generating scoring chances (51 shots on goal) and limiting those of the Habs (33).

The big plays weren’t there for the Bruins, though – or at least, not as many as were executed by the Habs.

Tuukka Rask blamed himself because he “couldn’t make the game-savers,” and summarized his 29-save performance by saying “when you (stink), you (stink).” Defenseman Matt Barkowski was downcast after taking two penalties that led to Montreal goals. Torey Krug scored during a thrilling, third-period rally, but lamented being unable to handle a pass in his skates and watching the Canadiens race back with the loose puck to score.

“You feel like you have the momentum, and then all of a sudden the puck ends up in the back of your net,” Krug said.

“It’s not a good way to play playoff hockey. There’s a couple of uncharacteristic plays by our team and it ends up in your net, and it’s not what we want.”

The Bruins would have survived those mistakes if they’d buried only a couple more of the fantastic chances they had to beat Price, who faltered briefly in the third period (3 goals on 14 shots), but never let the B’s take a lead. He was particularly spectacular in the first overtime period, stopping 14 shots.

“I thought we carried the play for the most part and obviously in that first OT period,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said.

“The only thing is, we’ve got to find a way to bury those great opportunities that we had. That’s probably where there’s some regrets.”

There were others, though, like failing to control Montreal’s third line of Rene Bourque (goal, assist), Lars Eller (assist) and Brian Gionta (assist), which didn’t exactly come out of nowhere: That trio was a combined 6-5–11 to lead the Habs’ four-game, Round 1 sweep of Tampa Bay.

And the special teams that lifted the B’s against the Red Wings were suddenly a liability. The power play had only two (unsuccessful) opportunities and the penalty-killers were lit up for a pair of goals on just three shorthanded situations: Both came off the stick of defenseman P.K. Subban, the second at 4:17 of the second OT.

“We need to do a better job of boxing out, blocking shots, disturbing their entries,” said Patrice Bergeron, who picked up his sixth point in as many games this postseason (an assist on Krug’s goal), but lost a faceoff to Thomas Plekanec that set Subban’s winner in motion.

In spite of their errors and omissions, the Bruins still had enough to recover from the 0-2 deficit they faced through 40 minutes, with Reilly Smith (2:44) and Krug (6:30) finally beating Price to tie it. Francis Bouillon put the Habs back on top with 7:51 left in regulation, but Johnny Boychuk forced overtime on a blast from the point with 1:58 to go.

“It took us a while to get our game going, I guess,” Julien said. “Once we started getting pucks on the net – which we weren’t (doing) enough earlier – and once we started getting some bodies there and creating some traffic, things started picking up. From midway through the second period on, that’s where we were at our best.”

The Bruins will want to be at their best a little earlier in Game 2, which starts at 12:35 p.m. Saturday. Their seven-game, first-round win over the Habs in 2011, after losing Games 1 and 2 at home, may now be the stuff of Stanley Cup championship legend, but the Bruins would prefer to avoid multiple must-wins at the Bell Centre.

“We’ve got to move on,” Krug said.

“It’s a long series – it’s going to be long. We know that, I think they know that, and they’ve got one in our building.”

Mike Loftus may be reached at mloftus@ledger.com or follow on Twitter @MLoftus_Ledger.